![]() Debrunner at the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Born | Mettendorf TG | 11 April 1995|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Education | Thurgau University of Education | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Catherine Debrunner (born 11 April 1995) is a Swiss athlete and teacher. She has competed for Team Switzerland at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships where she won a gold and silver medal. Individually, she has set new course records at the Berlin Marathon and 2023 Chicago Marathon.
Debrunner was born on 11 April 1995 in Mettendorf, Switzerland.[1] Due to a birth defect in her spine, she uses a wheelchair.[2] While attending a sports camp in Nottwil, she met her future trainer and coach Paul Odermatt.[3]
Debrunner competed in the T53 200 metres at the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships, where she earned a silver medal with a time of 30.64.[4] She qualified for the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio,[5] where she finished seventh in the Women's 400 metres.[6] Debrunner subsequently took a break from sports to focus on her education before returning to Team Switzerland for the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships.[7] In Dubai, she earned a gold medal in the Women's 400m T53[8] and a silver medal in the women's 800m T53 race.[9]
At the 2022 Berlin Marathon, Debrunner, competing in her first marathon won the race with a time of 1:36:47, breaking five-time winner Manuela Schär's streak of five Berlin Marathon wins.[10] In May 2023, Debrunner was awarded the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability award.[11] Later that year, Debrunner set another world record at the Berlin Marathon with a time of 1:34:16[12] and made her U.S. race debut in the 2023 Chicago Marathon in October. During the marathon, Debrunner set a new course record with a time of 1:38:44.[13]